Fairview-Riverside State Park, near Madisonville, Louisiana, is a charming campground that offers a mix of natural beauty and family-friendly amenities. With spacious sites that come equipped with picnic tables and fire rings, it’s an ideal place for gathering around the campfire and enjoying the great outdoors.

The campground features clean facilities, including showers and a laundry room, which visitors appreciate after a day of exploring. Many campers have highlighted the friendly service and the park's beautiful setting along the Tchefuncte River, making it a great base for fishing or simply soaking in the scenery. One visitor noted, “We spent 2 nights here & the campground was full of laughter & family fun.”

For those looking to venture out, the park offers easy access to nearby restaurants and attractions, perfect for a day trip. The boardwalks and nature trails provide a chance to experience the local wildlife and lush surroundings, while the playground keeps the kids entertained. 

While some campers mentioned that certain sites can be tricky to back into, the overall atmosphere is welcoming and relaxed. Whether you're here for a weekend escape or a longer stay, Fairview-Riverside State Park has plenty to offer for a memorable camping experience.

Scattered throughout the park beneath a canopy of huge oak trees, you will find numerous picnic tables, as well as a group pavilion, a playground, and comfort stations. Spend a relaxing afternoon on the river or venture out into the water for lively outdoor recreation. If you prefer to stay on land, the park's nature trail will take you by the river where you can enjoy the view. Then, cap off the perfect day by staying overnight in the park's campground. The cool, crystal-clear waters of the Tchefuncte River yield bass, bluegill, white perch, and bream near the park area, and channel catfish, speckled trout and redfish where the river meets the lake. Freshwater fishing from the river bank or a boat offers unmatched delights for even the most casual fisherman. Crabbing in the lake and the river is also popular. Just two miles away by road and a few minutes by water is the Madisonville public boat launch. Many visitors use the launch for access to the calm waters of the Tchefuncte River or the exhilarating expanse of Lake Pontchartrain.

Fairview-Riverside State Park

Madisonville, LA is a great camping destination for adventurers of all types. Enjoy the scenic camping, fun activities, and sights and sounds of Madisonville. Find the best campgrounds near Madisonville, plus reviews and photos from other campers like you.

Madisonville

The Best Camping Near Madisonville, Louisiana

Nice campground, grass kept cut nice, trees with shade, spots for both tents and rv's/campers.  Nice boardwalk and short trail, but no long hiking trails.  Great access point to Tchefuncte River.  Park is close to town also. 

Fairview-Riverside State Park, Madisonville, LA

Loved this CG - very nice and great sites. Amazing views across the water. Check it out for sure!

Very Nice! Great Views! Great Sites!

Had a great time. Reserved 3 primate spots for new years weekend. 13 ppl total - 6 adults, 7 kids (ages 4-14). There was a great boat launch spot for the kids to put kayaks and canoes in the water (brought our own gear - no rental)

Pros: quiet and peaceful, no active gators in January, clean and nice bath houses (heated), beautiful setting and views of the river.

Cons: very short hiking trail

No Gators in January

nice family camping, great for bike riding, fishing and camp fires. some nice water front lots. sorry it was raining when we went so not many pictures. 

nice park

Nice State Park on the Tchefuncte River in St.Tammany Parish. Bathhouses are clean and single use so you can take care of using the bathroom, showering, drying your hair...etc all in one private room. RV spots are concrete. Water and electric hookups, no sewer, but they do provide a dump station, has a nice play area for kids, and provides primitive camping spots as well. There is a fishing dock, and a wooden pier trail. We like staying here near our family. 

Nice Park Tucked Away

This is such a lovely park! Just north of Lake Pontchartrain on the river, it’s quaint and clean. We only stayed one evening, but our sunset walk was worth it! Be mindful to choose a spot with lots of shade- we didn’t and regretted it. 

Beautiful Views: Louisiana at it’s best!

Love this place, small, quiet, close to Bayou &amp; Lake Pontchatrain. Close to good restaurants &amp; fresh seafood.  

Small campground, State Park, 2 sections, 1 section above Bayou, 2nd section has boat launch a camping spots. 

A quiet and well maintained campground. We always enjoy our stopover night here on the drive to Alabama. It is our go-to place. The Otis House tour and other artifacts are interesting and worth the time. We routinely walk the campground road and trails each trip. Once we spotted a few alligators near the boat ramp area. There is also an eagle’s nest viewable from the Swamp Trail. It is very peaceful sitting on the boardwalk bordering the Tchefuncte River. The restroom/shower are individual rooms and huge. The park manager and staff are always pleasant and helpful.

Very quiet and relaxing campground.

Quiet, clean, well kept park with pretty river side views. We stayed here for 11 nights in Feb while traveling though the area. We used it as a base camp to go into New Orleans for a weekend (50 mins). The staff is very active in keeping the park clean and maintained. 
Our favorite things:
1. Great views for short walks
2. Close drive to groceries, resteraunts, and services. 
3. 3-4 complimentary washers and dryers (not common). 
4. paved pads for RV. (larger RVs like ours use the entire width but smaller rvs get some patio.)
5. Overflow parking for our truck. 
6. Bathrooms were clean everytime I went, which is just as much about the guests as the staff. 
Our least favorite things:
Like a lot of state parks there is not a sewer connection (they do have a dump station) but we knew that going in. We were close to the on-site facilities and stretched our tanks for the 11 days. 

We would stay here again. 


Very nice state park

My family went and stayed here for a weekend and enjoyed ourselves very much. It was a cold weekend and was very pleased that the bathrooms were heated.

Wonderful place

Enjoyed my stay at Riverside, and had no complaints.

Pretty good

One of the nicest state parks in the area. Very well maintained. Bathrooms and laundry always clean. Bring your boat and park at the parks small boat dock. Fish from the waterfront boardwalk. Save 50% with the America the Beautiful pass.

Facilities were very nice. Bathrooms were all individual rooms with sink/shower/toilet. Water was hot, showers were clean. Park is really well maintained. Standard state park campsites - Close together, no privacy. It had great cell service, wifi, and was close to lots of activities.

Standard Suburb State Park

Quite little camp ground, state park so some sites are full hookup and some only water and power. We have a great view of the river in site 061 but water and power only, dump station only about 75yrds away though...so no issues. Lots of great places near by for food and drink. 

Great location!! Great food everywhere!! 

I want to give them a 5, but they have a water problem. It doesn’t take much rain to have standing water in many sites. Lots of the pads are old and narrow. You find yourself stepping out your coach into sloppy mud. The grade on some sites are too much for class A coaches. But if the weather is good and you get a good pad, it’s a beautiful campground. 

They have a water problem

The park has a few primitive spots, but everything is small and close. Hiking trail is maybe a half mile, but that’s about it. There is a beautiful boardwalk on the Tchefuncte River, though, with great fishing. 

Small Sites but Good Fishing

It's a nice campground not many shady sites only a few. The back of the campground is on the river beautiful back there. Bath houses are clean. Peaceful and nice sights electric is upgraded. No sewer. Traffic on main road outside of campground can be very heavy at times.

My experience at Fairview Riverside State Park

We’ve stayed here a number of times and have always enjoy our stay. It’s a nice quiet and clean park on the banks of the Tchefunte River just above Madisonville. 45 minutes from New Orleans. Check out some of the local restaurants in Madisonville. 

Quiet, clean peaceful

We visited a few campgrounds in the area and we definitely plan to come back! Girlfriend rates the restrooms as top notch. 

Good clean campground. Still cleaning up a few areas from the last hurricane.

Small campground with spots right on top of each other. 

Says free internet but service at site was nonexistent.

No electric or water at site.

3 men and 3 women bathroom/shower combo rooms that are clean. Only issue is when park is full the wait for the toilets can be long because of showers. 

Laundry room (coin operated) available for use. 

Little gated entrance with park attendants who take payments for sites. Code for gate given for after hours 

RVs located mainly in center. Tent sites behind kid’s playground. Pretty long walk. 

Lots of trees gone from last hurricane. Still repairing things. 

Our tent site was located on the outer side right next to swamp. It included a picnic table, fire ring, a post with site number where you place your card and you can park on the grass next to your site. 

Free to cross causeway into Madisonville but $5 to return to NOLA

Must stop in Cafe Du Monde for beignets! 

Very friendly people ❤️⛺️

Inexpensive Small Adequate 

Beautiful little park with a spot for tents, the cleanest shower houses I’ve seen and a few things to do. There are 2 playgrounds, a boat launch, a small hiking trail and an area you can fish. There is also a small museum called the Otis house.

Good park for families

It’s got everything you need in a beautiful setting. 

Tent camped. Some of the tents back up to the woods for privacy and others are more in the middle and closer to the bathroom. 

Central Bathhouse:

3 bathrooms each side (males/females) each with a shower 

Laundry room with 2 washers &amp; dryers. 

Pop machine 

Tent Site:
Picnic table, fire ring, charcoal grill 

Water spigot for all to share

Went to another park close by and only stayed a night before coming back here ⛺️❤️

One of the better ones 

Helpful staff. Restrooms with showers. Small laundry room. 50amp and water at location. Some sites have full hook up. Was tight navigating in at my back in location. Sites are narrow. Quiet in the evenings. Easy to get to the Causeway to get into New Orleans. 

Nice area, busy entrance, some back in sites can be difficult to get into, but easy access to New Orleans 

Comfortable and nice

Nice little Louisiana SP campground. There are 2 loops here, we stayed in the loop close to the office. If we went back we would try to stay in loop closer to the river. Like many of the Louisiana SP campgrounds there was a laundry room which was nice. There is a short board walk trail and a boat ramp with slips for boats.  You are close to many conveniences of town. I would not recommend site 5, it was odd as the neighboring sites picnic table was directly behind our camper. Verizon service was good. Probably wouldn't stay again.  

2 loops

We really enjoyed being able to launch our boat near our site and going across the river to eat at one of the many restaurants along the Tchefuncte. We will definitely stay again! My only complaint was that there is a small yellow fence in front of this back in site and it makes it a tad difficult to line the camper up to back straight in. When our neighbor left, we had fantastic views of the river. One current problem is that the decking along the River is closed due to hurricane damage. Hopefully that will be fixed soon!

Great Staycation Location

Beautiful area on the Tchefunte River. Board walk takes you through some of the swampy area along the River. You can fish in river and large ponds, but watch for alligators.  Beautiful old house in park area you may visit. Little one really enjoyed playground area. Staff very friendly and helpful, this was our first time camping in our camper and we were happy for advice.

Our First Trip in Our Camper 

Awesome place to bring the family. Had a playground for the kids next to campsite. Walking distance to a picturesque river with lily’s and mangrove trees. Wish the sites were a little more private like state parks I’ve visited in TN where you’re tucked in a pocket of trees. 


Beautiful camp area

We spent 2 nights here &amp; the campground was full of laughter &amp; family fun. Weather was perfect. Level sites, clean facilities &amp; friendly service. Def’ly will return.

Great base to explore area

It’s a nice park. BUT the site we got was for a 50’ but there’s a fence on the other side and virtually impossible to “back” into. I asked for premium but apparently the website isn’t clear. Since I asked for full hookup we got no septic. We were here for 4 days. We began to put the jacks down and kept stopping, Finally got them down and it kept saying low voltage and couldn’t get the slides out since we were throwing the breaker every time. We had them part in part out and power kept going off and surging. We got here around 2. We called about the power and their help had left already. They called him back and he showed up 2 hours later and is now repairing it in the dark. It’s almost 6 pm and still no power. We told them we just wanted a refund which they did give us eventually. The whole park has a huge issue with drainage. Water was standing everywhere. 

Madisonville, LA…A huge disappointment 

This place is beautiful. Cheap electric and water hook ups, lots of space for each campsite. 

Great place! 

Ok for a stopover. We had to book 2 nights since it was a weekend. This might be a good place to stay if you were attending an event in New Orleans such as a game. But the sites are super close together and not much shade. They have wifi but when we connected it said ‘no internet’ so apparently it wasn’t working. AT&amp;T cell service was 5G.

Handicap bathrooms are decent but lights are motion censored so can turn off on you while you are in the shower. 
People at the front entrance are very nice but seem a bit frazzled. They could use more staff to take the load off. 
I do believe there are homeless people coming in here without paying to shower and stay in their cars from time to time from what I heard from staff. Did not witness this however. 

Photos of Fairview-Riverside State Park

Real photos from real campers